Kitchen Adventures! - Spicy Rice and Eggplant casserole

More Kitchen Adventures! This time with eggplant. I can honestly say that eggplant is not a vegetable I'm familiar with when it comes to cooking. My mother attempted an eggplant parmesan once. It didn't really go over that well. After that, we never saw another eggplant on our dinner plates ever again.

Preparing the eggplant for frying

Recently, I decided to try eggplant again. Most of the recipes I came across involved breading, cheese and pasta, but that was not the kind of recipe I was after. After some more searching, I came across a rice and eggplant dish that caught my attention. The casserole was made of fried eggplant slices with a mixture of rice, tomato, onions, green peppers and a white sauce layered between. It sounded simple enough. Sounded being the operative word in that sentence. I was not prepared for what I was about to get myself into.

Chop! Chop! Chop!

Most of the meals that I make are quick and easy. And while this recipe was not complex, it took much more time than I had anticipated it would. I had to make a Bechemal sauce, for heaven's sake. I didn't even know what that was until I made this dish. I don't think there was one part that was more time consuming than the other. It was just the number of things that had to come together to make this dish.

Bon Apetit!

In the end, the dish was absolutely delicious! My parents (who aren't big eggplant enthusiasts) went back for seconds and thirds. That made me very very happy to see. My only complaint is that there was absolutely nothing spicy about this recipe whatsoever. Would I make this dish again? Yes, but I would have very motivated and well rested. It is a tasty vegetarian dish. It's a tasty eggplant dish. The recipe is definitely a keep.

If you would like to make this yourself the recipe is HERE.